CITY FOCUS: Justin Welby - and bringing the bankers back down to earth

Earthly role: Justin Welby is also a member of the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards

Justin Welby, the Bishop of Durham and the bookies’ favourite to be confirmed as the next Archbishop of Canterbury, was yesterday busying himself with non-spiritual matters.

The former oil executive refused to let the prospect of becoming the most powerful religious leader in the land distract him from his earthly role as a member of the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards.

The matter at hand was not human rights, abortion or gay marriage, but the gritty issue of banking reforms designed to protect ordinary consumers from future scandals and help prevent another banking crisis.

These changes include ring fencing so–called ‘casino banks’ from the more humdrum business of loans, mortgages and savings on the high street.

Perhaps in a sign of Welby’s imminent elevation, Andrew Tyrie, the chair of the Commission, invited him to speak first in both sessions with industry experts held yesterday morning.

Those hoping for an inflammatory comment about female bishops from a man who describes himself as ‘unashamedly evangelical’ and conservative were in for a disappointment.
Instead Welby lambasted those in the financial industry lobbying against the ringfence as promoting a status quo which ‘smashed the economy to pieces.’

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‘I am very unconvinced by the argument that this is too costly and complicated to implement,’ he added.
It was a brief cameo for a man who could prove to be one of the banking industry’s most powerful adversaries.

Welby has certainly been an outspoken critic in the past, once accusing banks of having ‘no socially useful purpose’.
Speaking at a conference in Zurich, Switzerland, he described banks as ‘exponents of anarchy’ before the financial crisis in 2008 because they pursued ‘activity without purpose’.

The Eton and Cambridge-educated 56-year-old has enjoyed an unlikely rise from the cut and thrust world of oil to the cusp of becoming the spiritual leader of almost 80m Anglicans around the world.

He worked for 11 years for the French oil company Elf Aquitaine before becoming treasurer of the oil exploration group Enterprise Oil in London in 1984.
He retired in 1987 when he said he sensed a calling from God to be ordained.

After training for the priesthood in Durham he embarked on a highly successful career in the church.
This culminated in becoming the Dean of Liverpool Cathedral in December 2007 and Bishop of Durham in November last year.

Sources have described him as the outstanding candidate to replace the more liberal Rowan Williams, despite only being a bishop for a year.

Welby’s self deprecating manner, sense of humour and common touch have made him widely popular despite holding views which rankle with those in liberal circles, including his opposition to gay marriage.

Asked by a newspaper in July about being tipped as the next Archbishop of Canterbury, he said he did not want the job.
‘Let’s be clear, I’m one of the thicker bishops in the Church of England,’ he added.

But it was his background in the private sector and his grasp of finance that led to him being signed up to the Parliamentary Commission of Banking Standards.
This was set up after Barclays was fined £290million in June for rigging crucial Libor interest rates – a scandal now sweeping the industry.

One pressing concern for Welby is the sale of complicated interest rate swaps alongside loans to small businesses. These financial instruments were meant to protect firms from rising interest rates but left many with crippling ‘breakage’ fees if they wanted to switch to a cheaper deal.

This week Welby told the Mail he was also concerned about fixed rate loans that also come with huge break fees but which are not being investigated by City watchdog, the Financial Services Authority.

He said: ‘These things are much more complicated underneath than they appear on the surface.

‘It is really important that banks warned people about all the cost implications before they entered into these contracts.’

If Welby is appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, Tyrie has made it clear the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards would like Welby to continue serving on the committee.

If Tyrie gets his wish, Stephen Hester, Antonio Horta Osorio and Peter Sands – the bosses of Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds and Standard Chartered respectively –could become the first to be grilled by the Archbishop-elect when they appear before the Parliamentary Commission next week.